Green tint in Water

[thereefmaniac]

My Friend set up a 180 Gallon Tank about 7 weeks ago. He just completed Nitrite cycle. The thing is his water always looks like a Green Tint, It was like that from the get go. Its not algea or anything and I can't figure it out either. Does anyone know how he can clear up his water so it looks Crystal!!! Thanks

 

[krunk]

what kind of lighting does he have?

 

[thomas712]

I'm afraid that you will not get rid of that green tint. In all likelyhood it is the glass itself of which the aquarium is made off.
Thomas

 

[thereefmaniac]

Ita a Glass Aqurium, and he is using no Lighting at this time

 

[barracuda]

Since we're not sure if it's glass or water, i suggest you to take some water out into the glass test vial (from your test kit) and look through it.

 

[pmauro]

cloud be an alge bloom, normally don't see too much green tint from glass unless it is quite thick.

 

[myescape0]

I have the same problem.My tank cleared up when we got a protein skimmer but it's green again. We have 96W X 4 bulbs.2 white..2 blue.I forget the actual info on them and I'm @ work so I'll have to look when I get home.We hooked up a vortex filter and it cleared it up some but not all.My husband wants to give up...we've lost ALOT of money we put into the dead fish.
150 gal.
120 lbs. livesand
250+ liverock
1--lge.yellow tang
1--lge. marroon clown
1-- anenome
everything else has died
33 gal. new
40lb. livesand
30? lb. liverock
1--snowflake eel
1--damsel
1-coral banded shrimp
15+ trumpet looking things on my L/R
1--mussel maybe on my L/R

 

[shels]

My tank had a yellow tint to it when you looked threw the tank on the sides when we first moved it. I asked my lfs about it and brought the water to them to test, everything was great. They told to buy some charcoal and run it for a few days. It cleared right up and has never donr it since. It has benn about 3 years.
Shel

 

[beaslbob]

Originally posted by TheReefManiac
My Friend set up a 180 Gallon Tank about 7 weeks ago. He just completed Nitrite cycle. The thing is his water always looks like a Green Tint, It was like that from the get go. Its not algea or anything and I can't figure it out either. Does anyone know how he can clear up his water so it looks Crystal!!! Thanks
Well hopefully the green tint is not something that is comming from one of the decorations. Activated carbon and/or a canister type water polisher filter will remove the visable stuff from the water.
A long time ago I had too much lighting. Like really too much. The water polisher would clear it up and then a couple of days later it would be back. I had to reduce the amount and time of the lights before it cleared up. It was suspended algae which the macro algae in the tank could not handle.

 

[cincyreefer]

sounds like an algae bloom to me. I would recommend throwing a blanket over the tank for a few days so that no light at all can enter, except when you feed. Is the tank receiving any kind of direct or indirect sunlight? It might also help to add a few sponge filters onto your powerheads and clean them everday to help remove the suspended algae.

 

[myescape0]

We did the charcoal thing,the protien skimmer,and now the vortex XL Diatom filter.We haven't tried the darkness....will that hurt any of my fish ? I don't see any algae growth anywhere ...should we ?

 

[myescape0]

..Here's what is running my tank...
*150 gal.sumpw/ dual drains,lifetech AP5600 pump
*Vortex XL diatom filter for up to 200 gal.
*2 rio 1700 powerheads that are on the sides and towards
the center blowing longways at each other (that stopped the
red slime from being on the l/r but not the l/s.)
*Electro-lites...power compact...2 X 96...ultra-actinic
and 2 X 96...10000K Premium Daylight
We are afraid to buy more fish due to about $1000.00 in fish have died since starting this tank about six months ago.
Our LFS says our water tests out perfect.All of our home tests
say it's perfect also.
We have...
1 lge. yellow tang
1 lge. marroon clown
snails and hermit crabs
The anenome died today
120 lbs. livesand
250 lbs liverock...give or take

 

[jillian ayers]

What kind of fish have died and why? It might give a clue to what's wrong with the tank. Just a thought...

 

[beaslbob]

Are you sure the nitrAtes are ok? I have heard the anenomes are sensitive to nitrAte levels. And nitrAtes also cause algae blooms. And has your ph fallen?
Under the assumption that following is happening: you have green water, fish last a couple of months or less, and you have little or no macro algae. My recommendation would be to start (or at least increase) macro algea immediately. If you do not have a refugium then culture it in a seperate container and add it to the tank

 

[myescape0]

This is a list of what I can remember that has died... regal tangs,koran tang,yellow tangs,sailfin tangs,angels,coral catfishes,puffers,firefishes,anenomes,urchins,royal gammas,blood shrimp,another shrimp. I think my purple anenome was eating alot of them.When we decided to take everything out and start over we found some recently missing fish right under where he stayed (at the back of my L/R)

 

[myescape0]

My water is fine.I'll ask my LFS for the refugium and see what I can do to increase the macro-algea. Thanks everyone for your help so far.

 

[beaslbob]

Originally posted by myescape0
My water is fine.I'll ask my LFS for the refugium and see what I can do to increase the macro-algea. Thanks everyone for your help so far.
I have a feeling that the last thing you want to do is invest a lot of money and time in another thing. Let me suggest an alternative. Your fish and cleaner crew will probably eat macro algae in the tank. What I did was to use an old 20g long I had laying around, put in about 3" of play sand ($2.00), fill it with water from my tank ($0.00 if you do weekly water changes), and add macro algae. A couple of NO tubes and that was it. The tank had no top for maximum air water area. The algae took off and nitrates fell to 0.0 in the algae tank. I then harvest a handfull of macro to the main tank each week. Over a couple of months, the main tank nitrates are slowly dropping as more and more macro algae remains. The tang loves grazing on the macro added each week. You don't even have to use a tank as any container would do such as a rubbermaid type contianer. You could even save on lighting as any source (even the sun) would be sufficient. Just an idea.

 

[myescape0]

Originally posted by beaslbob
I have a feeling that the last thing you want to do is invest a lot of money and time in another thing. Let me suggest an alternative. Your fish and cleaner crew will probably eat macro algae in the tank. What I did was to use an old 20g long I had laying around, put in about 3" of play sand ($2.00), fill it with water from my tank ($0.00 if you do weekly water changes), and add macro algae. A couple of NO tubes and that was it. The tank had no top for maximum air water area. The algae took off and nitrates fell to 0.0 in the algae tank. I then harvest a handfull of macro to the main tank each week. Over a couple of months, the main tank nitrates are slowly dropping as more and more macro algae remains. The tang loves grazing on the macro added each week. You don't even have to use a tank as any container would do such as a rubbermaid type contianer. You could even save on lighting as any source (even the sun) would be sufficient. Just an idea.

Thanks we'll give it a try.I just got a shipment of shaving brush,5 crabs,10 peppermint shrimp,2 wrasse in hopes to help our tank.

 

[beaslbob]

Originally posted by myescape0
Thanks we'll give it a try.I just got a shipment of shaving brush,5 crabs,10 peppermint shrimp,2 wrasse in hopes to help our tank.
let me know how the shaving brushes work. beaslbob@aol.com

 

[myescape0]

Originally posted by beaslbob
let me know how the shaving brushes work. beaslbob@aol.com
NP ... I'll keep u posted and my fingers crossed...The vortex filter w/ charge powder and char-mix cleared my tank last night/this morning.So far my tang likes the shaving brush.My c/c starfish does also...I had to pry him off of one.I moved it away from the L/R and he leaves it alone now.